Chataignier, parish schools adopt innovations

Innovation seems like the right word to describe changes at parish schools lately, such as the ones that are encouraging Chataignier Elementary School students to not only achieve academically, but also to help each other and the wider community as schools in the parish make improvements.
David Ardoin has been a seventh and eighth grade teacher of Louisiana and American history at the school. The coming school year will be his fourth at the school. Before then, he was a teacher in Mamou. He has been a teacher for 16 years.
This coming school year, he also will be an assistant principal, as part of the Evangeline Parish School Board’s efforts to expand that position to employees who are interested in that career track.
Ardoin and other school board employees have been reaching out to local municipal governments to find ways of attracting more students. There are just over 300 students at Chataignier Elementary, and if that number has changed any in the recent past, it’s been slightly downward. The school and the village officials work together for a common goal -- attracting businesses to improve the local economy and to grow the student population.
He and others are also in contact with parish officials. One example is enlisting the assistance of parish registrar of voters, Lucas Buller, and his staff with the student council at the school.
School teachers and administrators assist the students in selecting nominees for student council for fifth through eighth graders. During the 2014-2015 school year, a representative from the fourth grade will be added to the student council for the first time.
Registrar of voters employees will bring electronic voting booths to the school and set them up in the school’s computer lab.
On voting day, classes are scheduled to go to the lab for about 10 minutes each to vote on the student council nominees. This gives students their first hands-on experience with how democratic institutions are formed and how they operate.
Ardoin said another relatively new emphasis is the Fellowship of Christian Students. That student group had 20 participating students during its first year, three years ago. Last year, 50 students took part at Chataignier Elementary.
That group meets monthly to discuss voluntary student projects. The student meets each Wednesday during the school year for a prayer meeting and to discuss upcoming events, Ardoin said. They also meet for an hour every month for Bible-based activities, such as scavenger hunts based on Biblical quotations.
Some of the projects the fellowship volunteers take part in is helping with food or clothing donations, at food banks, homeless shelters and churches, leading up to Christmas. Last year, they helped with those efforts in Eunice, but Ardoin said they would be more active in Ville Platte during the 2014-2015 school year.
Another relatively new program is a “positive incentive system,” that rewards students who maintain high grades, such as with treats or allowing students to wear jeans on Fridays. Decisions about who will receive those incentives are made during a monthly meeting.
Chataignier Elementary also has had a Wise Choice Club for the past three years. Fifty to 60 third- through eighth-grade students in the club meet monthly under the guidance of school’s student counselor. Members of the club decide on voluntary projects at the school, such as clean-up after recess. Students in te club are told how to involve the school counselor if they see students who are upset, angry or have other problems.
The school added to its athletic program last year when with boys and girls track events. Its cross country events are about three years old, and the school’s basketball program has been active for many years.
Chataignier Elementary improved from a “C” grade by the state to a “B” last year, and Ardoin said the reason for improvements throughout the parish is “the parish adapted very well,” to new state-mandated evaluations of teachers.